I'm not the only one, here's a resemblance of me 😉😐😎😎😎😎😎
Here is the story of a looser I know. More or less a story about one of his bad days in his life, which are ample in his life.
-----Back then, I was hunting for my first job. Graduated from a remote college with an average performance record. Can't go to MNC's with out experience. Can't get hired for average skillset. Little frustrated. Little confused. But very clueless. Got a call from a big'ish corporate giant's call for a job post through one of those CAT like Aptitude tests for Engineer grads, which I barely crossed the eligibility criteria in my third attempt.
I received the message on a Friday evening, for which I have confirm my RSVP by Saturday afternoon and the interview was on Sunday morning. Not to forget that the event was in Bangalore and I live in Hyderabad. Meanwhile I had to get myself Java-certified by any local training institute, as the paper was mandatory for that corporate giant. I never took it seriously until Saturday morning. After a brief thought of just giving it a try. I went with the wind.
There started the actual trouble, trouble was finding the certification as a part of any Java course, which I never did, even after many months from graduating. But now I had to get it done at any cost. Tried almost everything, called the Institutes I could recall from the United streets of Ameerpet. Asked my father and sister to use their power of contacts. Asked help from friends at MNC's, relatives, neighbours.... you know the drill. Tried even faking and forging one.
To the critical abyss I was in at that time, received a text from my Dad saying that bus tickets were booked from HYD to BLORE for saturday night. Sister said she would accompany me as she knows Blore well and has her friends to help us both with anything needed . May be I gave them a useless hope, I should have never told told them about the interview.
Later that Saturday afternoon, thanks to the helping hand of a family friend who arranged that paper for me. Now that all planets moved for me. I had to give that a try. Packed a lil. Got the paper work done. Got the tickets to B'lore. Booked a small-budget'ed hotel room very near to the bus-stop as it would be early hours on Sunday when we reach there. Booked a cab from Hotel to Electronics city, where the event was. All set for Sunday. I was relaxed.
Boarded the Bus at 06:00PM on Saturday at Hyderabad, then I realized that I never actually knew anything great about java. I knew something basic but was clearly inadequate for an interview, I had just the time of a single night to prepare. I incompletely skimmed through the Complete Java reference book by McGrawHills. Observed a point that reading Java was never exciting. Neither in college nor while travelling on Highway. The Bus took us to banglore by 5:30AM in the morning. It was late than it should be. Had to think about whether to reach the hotel I booked last night or find a newer one which is close by so as to manage time. We took a quick decision and asked the autowala to make the decision. One of them was kind enough to drop us at a decently priced Hotel which was clearly out of our budget. Not heavily out of margin but agreeable kind of price at that point of time. Got into the room, refreshed and ready. Booked another cab from this place. Hotel was good enough to organize a break-fast buffet. But I was not in the mood nor in the metabolic cycle to eat as that day was D-Day.
Sunday arrived and so did the cab. We started at 7:00 and reached the place by 9:00. The interview was scheduled at 10:30. Much too early right. The company had multiple offices in the same location and was intelligent enough not to mention the correct one in the interview letter. Me and my sister had to walk a lot to find the correct one by luck. She was not allowed inside. Left her at the coffee shop nearby. And went in to figure out my future. Sat and relaxed a bit. Called mom to tell her that all was well until I reached the place. Phone went out of balance as I totally forgot the roaming feature. Lucky enough to make a last call to dad. People started pouring in. Very bright and intelligent, way beyond me. Around 60-70 in number.
Entered the actual office, place was pretty fancy. Each of us were given a cubicle. And the organizer started the process. The first phase consists of a written test for aptitude, followed by GD. Phase two consists of two sets of technical rounds followed by final HR round. Each round has filtration.
Process for headache began at 10:55 AM. Paper was given for the phase one. That was similar to the standards of the CAT like test I gave before. Wait....there is another one I have to clear...? Why did I write the first one for...? These corporate giants. Some how I gathered all my psychological ability and was able to clear that. Then there was GD. This round was never a problem for me. Thanks to the versatility of the schools from my childhood.
Then started the phase two, technical round. I was the first one to experience it. Mine took place inside a small conference room. There were two interviewers. One male and one female. None seemed interesting to me at that time. They started verifying my papers and asked some questions about my self. I answered them. The lady asked me some logical questions like "6 men crossing a river on a boat capacity of two...". Arrrghhhh... I just gave a test with similar questions. Actually two of them... That irritated me a lot. The guy finally asked some meaningful questions about the subject. Before the interview I was learning bits of Python and php which helped me a bit. The next convo went lik:
"What is your favourite area in IT..?".
"Web-development".
"What...?"
"(Are you deaf...?) Pardon...?"
"You are here for a Java post and you are barely skilled in PHP. And you like web-development. What are you...?"
"(I am the all rounder Bitch...) Its not like we don't use Java in web services right...? I never thought learning should be on one subject or area"
"==silent for a minute=="
"???"
"Alright. Give us a minute. Can you please wait outside..."
"(Dang it). Sure. Thanks"
I think I have hurt the poor guy's ego. Pch. Come on, should I say Data structures/ Algorithms was my favourite space as I came for a Java post. what is wrong with web-development. That's what I love to do. Make websites. I made a huge mistake there. Actually, Me giving this interview is a big mistake.
Dialled my sister and told about what was happening. She felt happy as I did not screw up until phase two. Done with call. I sat at my place. A gentle man walked towards me and whispered these magic words with a smile.
"Thanks for coming to our company. You are not selected. You may leave for the day..."
Glad he did not yell this from a corner of the hall. I was angry enough by then to leave but waited outside for a brief 30 mins. And I have absolutely no idea why I did that. I met a guy who had a 98% in that aptitude exam and a great set of academics. He also gave interviews for other major companies in Blore. To his fate, even he was asked to leave as he was not selected. But this time the organizer yelled from the corner. That relieved me a lot. Shared the happy news with my family that I was rejected . Reached the coffee shop where my sister was waiting. Had some junk and coffee as lunch. I thought that was the my bad day but that just got worse.
It was 1:40 PM when we boarded a city bus to reach the bus stop. Looked like the bus did not like my performance at the interview. It had an engine problem. Had to take another one and reached the bus stop. Now a prepaid auto to our hotel we checked in.
Screw it. We didn't remember the hotel's name. Seriously...we went to a hotel nearby the bus stop early in the morning just to unpack and refresh. (For the great interview). The counter guy figured it out with the clues I gave. Meanwhile my sister had the room's key with a Hotel name attached to it. Huh very lucky enough. The auto started but the autowala could not figure out the route to the Hotel and we couldn't figure out the language he spoke. (A big shout out for autowalas in hyderabad who could speak a world class Hindi, Telugu And a semi-world class English). I had to get down from auto for a couple of times and ask the pedestrians about the route. Finally after a little struggle , we reached our hotel. The autowala gave me a serious look that I should be aware of the route properly. Dude, you had just one job and you screwed it, like me.
It was 3:30 PM by then, I had a bare 2 hours to sleep but my head ache and bad day did not allow me to relax. Now that there is no plan for my future. We decided to vacate the room and go to my sister's friend's place. This time I booked a cab and checked out the hotel. Her friend was greedy enough to make us walk for more than a couple of kilometers for our dinner. I have slept like a dead man , for more than 15 hours. Booked the return tickets for Monday night. And came back to Hyderabad as a looser.
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Years from then, I still regret a lot for what happened during that bad day(s).
Its not about winning. Its never about the stories of the winners. To win anything in life, one looks upon for inspiration around him... Sources, Personalities, Vision, Stories all about winners.
What life taught me, is to observe the looser. Its the story of the looser that has the correct lessons and experiences, which inspire. I searched for one and found none. Looks like no one wanted to write or archive any loser's story.
All I could see were the stories of winners, or mostly the temporary losers who ultimately succeeded at the end. Stories about dropouts becoming billionaires, jobless who became inventors, IIT grads with 1 Crore annual packs, the list goes on. But I never found a story about a looser like me. No one wants a looser. Precisely, no one remembers the looser. Forgive the world, No one actually recognizes the runner up at any race. My principle is if you didn't find anything good to read, START writing...I have not found a loser's story. So I wrote my own. Well a part of my story. There is more yet to loose
